It Is Our Fate: To Separate Church and State

Founding falters

The founders of our Christian nation were more Christian than not. Although some were religious, they knew religious dogma could paralyze progress. Therefore, they pushed for freedom of religion.

They all knew the Christian bible probably more-so than any other doctrine, but they also knew the whole burning, bloody history of Europe from pagan times to the Enlightenment.

Yet, we still added “In God we trust” on our money. We added verses to the pledge of allegiance to say “Under God,” We are accustomed to swearing in on a bible, and hearing “God bless America (and our troops!).”

It is important to realize that it wasn’t always this way, and we will go back and forth with the entire mess of religion in public life for some time.

There are several problems with demanded “religious freedom” right now. Only a very few believers are the kind of conservative Christians who wish to control everyone else: their marriage, their love, their reproduction and their healthcare. The majority, however, have come to take religious freedom — sometimes freedom from religion — for granted.

They don’t read their money anymore. They don’t say the pledge of allegiance.

Yet, we are in a moment where the Supreme Court is handing out rulings that imply, once again, religious freedom is not as important as the dominant religion of Christianity.

Although there is not biblical teaching about abortion, for example, or for prayer in school, rulings are being made that infringe on total freedom while they assert a limited, or at least directional, protocol for all of us.

Viewed historically, though, letting one influence overpower others has never worked out well in our external nature systems, or in our natural social systems.

Diversity is everything in democracy

Diversity of thought, culture, food, dress, music, and so much more is critically important to having a healthy world.

It is a lesson from the natural world. Adding more variation offers more advantages, more protections, more options, more collaboration, and more beauty.

We call this natural selection, or evolution driven by environment. There is nothing in nature disconnected from everything else through systems. In combinations, and only in combinations, can homeostatic systems support and enable flourishing life.

Through finally looking at issues such as rapacious capitalism, colonialism, exploitation of workers and earthly resources, we are finally catching on to this simple truth.

When we allow many voices, we allow many innovations. We can see more ways to interpret problems and solutions. We have less resentment. We have a stronger, resilient basis for progress, and for fair practices.

Democracy may end up as a failed experiment, but so will capitalism and ultimately Christianity — as we know it is not forever. We know this because the Christianity of early AD, and of medieval Europe, and of colonial times, etc., were all very different, and temporary.

Everything is temporary.

Good news: environment drives evolution

We may continue down a path of one “correct” religion. This could go on for days or for decades. It all depends upon the environment that is created in the works.

Today, we are experiencing fires, extreme weather and viral pandemics. We have a social environment of discontent. This could explain both why some are turning toward a more structured, authoritarian set of rules, but others fight for representation.

Whatever we achieve, we will not stay put there forever.

Our environment is comprised of social structures, but also reliant on natural systems. The center cannot hold when extremes flood in and create havoc.

This is good news, because change, no matter how vigorously fought, is absolutely inevitable. A central tenet of conservativism is to conserve the traditional ways. A central tenet of liberalism is to fight the status quo — to try to adjust to a new and changing world.

We are in a new and changing world.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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